Apple sues OpenAI over ex-engineer's alleged theft of trade secrets

Apple's lawsuit centers on what the company describes as a rare authentication vulnerability that Liu discovered shortly after joining OpenAI. Rather than reporting the flaw, Liu allegedly used the Apple-issued work laptop he had not yet returned to systematically download files related to Apple's hardware roadmap and engineering—information Apple characterizes as invaluable to anyone developing competing hardware devices. The lawsuit frames this not as a lone insider acting independently, but as part of a broader effort by OpenAI to recruit Apple talent and gain access to proprietary information as a shortcut to building hardware that could rival Apple's consumer products.

Apple's discovery of the breach came through internal messages between Liu and another current employee, Yu-Ting "Alyssa" Peng, in which Liu reportedly joked about his access. The company has since patched the bug and confirmed that it was not widely exploited beyond Liu's documented downloads. The lawsuit seeks injunctions preventing OpenAI from using any of the stolen files and is requesting substantial penalties—framed by Apple as necessary to deter what it characterizes as a calculated scheme to bypass the years of engineering work required to develop competitive hardware.